Tag: Time and Attendance

Time and attendance for business and the available access control solutions

Organisations have been using time and attendance systems as a means to track employee clocking data for over 20 years. Old card based systems were slow and unreliable and as technology advanced new cutting edge real time systems took there place. Employees are no longer limited to how they can clock as most systems now come with a range of different options. The introduction of biometric and proximity technology now means that clocking can be completed in a number of seconds.

Access Control

Time and attendance within a business is not a new concept. Organisations have been using paper cards as a means of clocking employee working hours since the 20th century.  The problem with using a paper card system is that it’s extremely unreliable. Paper is easily lost and even if the card remained safe there was never any way of knowing if the times written on the sheet were accurate. This caused major problems for companies when it came to payroll, meaning employees were often over or under paid. An employee who has been under paid is less likely to work to their full potential meaning productivity levels in the work place often drop. Low productivity levels and overpaid staff can lead to organisations losing out on thousands a year.

As times changed and technology advanced so did the type of systems organisations use to track their employees time and attendance data.  Electronic automated clocking systems now record accurate employee data in real time. As data no longer needs to be manually imputed human resources departments are able to focus on more pressing tasks.

The benefits of having a fully functioning time and attendance system

The main benefit for a company which uses a time and attendance system is that the data being collected always remains accurate.  As all employee clock-ins are collected through an electronic system, the chances of fraudulent clocking is significantly reduced.  Employee time-thefts are also reduced as clockings can be completed via an IP based clock device, over a browser and even through a mobile device.  This allows employees to clock from any location whilst on the go. Notifications can be set up within the system to alert managers when staff clock late or leave early. These alerts inform an employer of attendance issues at the earliest stage.

Companies who implemented punch card systems often became victims of ‘buddy clocking’. Employees would often clock in for their “colleagues” when they were perhaps running late or had opted to take a longer break than allowed.  Almost all time and attendance systems available today, come with technology which can make it impossible for an employee to clock as anyone but themselves.

Human resource departments are at the forefront of any business. It manages all employee data and ensures that all information they have remains correct and up to date.  The underlying issues surrounding this is that manually checking and manipulating data can be time consuming and extremely costly.  Data collation and maintenance rapidly drains the resource available in most HR departments, meaning that information is often neglected or mislaid.  Any dynamic software solution should combine both Time & Attendance and HR System within one scalable database.

One database means the eradication of double keying information as data entered is immediately filtered throughout the system.

Most now come equipped with employee self-service (ESS) capabilities which provides employees with an easy-to-use web based interface allowing them to update their own personal data, without needing to contact their HR department.  Employees with access to ESS can also view information relating to their shift patterns, holidays – requested, planned or taken, together with full information on their weekly clockings and pay premiums.

Employees are able to request holidays or absences using employee self-serve and any absence requests are forwarded to their line manager for approval. Once a request has been accepted it is automatically imputed into the employee’s calendar, removing any need for the employee to contact HR.

Implementing an automated time and attendance system can also help a business’s stay on the right side of any legislation. Manual systems make it difficult for companies to track things such as overtime and overall hours worked. Both have high legal requirements that if not obeyed can lead to an employee perusing corrective action via an employment tribunal.

The available Access control solutions

Over the years, the number of Time & Attendance systems available to businesses has significantly increased.  Advancing technology is often utilised by the companies who manufacturing T&A systems creating a wider choice of cutting edge systems.  Each system is designed with its own capabilities and can permit access to employees in a number of different ways.

Biometric systems

Biometric access control systems are becoming ever more popular. These technologies offer cutting edge opportunities – look impressive to visitors and because they rely on unique employee features time-theft is completely eradicated.

Fingerprint biometric Time & Attendance units are the most common systems implemented into companies as they now have a 99.9% accuracy rate.  As Time & Attendance systems act as one big database, information collected on one terminal, is automatically passed through to all the other terminals within the business. This provides employees the ability to clock at any terminal within the building.  Facial recognition software works in exactly the same way.  Once enrolled, template information is distributed automatically throughout the company’s device estate.

Most Time & Attendance systems can be integrated with an access control unit. Businesses with an integrated access control and Time & Attendance system, are able to restrict access on a door-by-door basis, making sure that only authorised employees gain access to sensitive areas. Access can also be restricted by date and time allowing companies to lock down their business premises over festive periods, during bank holidays and after working hours.

Proximity technology

Proximity access control systems have always required an employee to swipe their access card in order to clock. The processes of swiping a card however can be time consuming.  Employees in a busy environment often swipe their cards too quickly for a system to recognise who they are, forcing them to slow down and problems begin as ques start to form into the building especially at busy periods of the day.

As Proximity technology advanced – so did the systems and options available. The invention of contactless technology now means that access control cards and fobs are designed to permit access without the need to swipe. An employee simply needs to hold their card up to the device in order to gain access or register a clocking.

Intercom and integration with VOIP

Intercom systems have been the chosen solution for granting visitor access into buildings for a number of years.  More often than not, they come with audio capabilities but as costs decrease, more are being installed with both audio and video capabilities.

As companies move towards a combined VIOP infrastructure, external intercom can now be fully integrated with your VIOP telephone system, providing full control of your external access points to any extension on your telephone system.

Barrier automation and turnstiles

Automated barriers or turnstiles now provide control to companies of who has access to your perimeter, company carpark, warehouses or any other company land.

Securing the first point of access to your organisation adds an extra level of security when protecting your business. Both barriers and turnstiles can be configured to only allow access to registered employees within your company’s Time & Attendance database.  Access can be granted using biometric or proximity technology and time profiles can be set up in order to stop people from accessing the premises outside of working hours or on certain days.

There are a number of different types of barriers available including sliding gates, ground mounted bollards and rising arm barriers.  Turnstiles are also available for both internal and external applications and are usually configured with anti-pass-back technology.

For more information on what a time and attendance system is, the benefits it could have on your business and the available access control systems, contact us today!

 

A guide to managing additional working hours

Almost all businesses have employees who work additional hours – check out this infographic to discover the impact these extra working hours can have on your workforce.

Almost all businesses have employees who work additional hours. How these hours are recorded often depends on the organisations polices. Flexi time, overtime, time off in lieu and additional hours all have there advantages and disadvantages. The below infographic details each option and the positive and negative affects these extra working hours can have on your workforce.

( Click infographic to enlarge )

Best Practices for Additional Working Hours

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Automation of manual time sheet processing with Time and Attendance

Manual time and attendance processes can be costly to an organisation they are also difficult to handle. Many employees are unreliable with the data they submit which can in turn lead to problems with payroll leaving organisations at risk of paying their employees wrong. Implementing the Ceequel time and attendance system easily records accurate data on how many hours each member of your workforce has completed.

Timesheet

Managing employee time and attendance data is a difficult task for many businesses especially if the process is still manual.  Employees often fall behind in the completion of their time sheets and most can never remember the exact time they started and finished work, meaning false data is often entered.  This means many organisations risk under or over paying their staff and Issues involving payroll can often lead to a reduction in productivity levels.

An automated time and attendance system easily collects and tracks your employees clocking information.  Data is collected and stored in real time allowing mangers to access employee time on the go.  Employee absences and holidays can also easily be tracked making sure the appropriate amount of pay is given for each occasion.

Integrating your time and attendance system with payroll can significantly Increase the accuracy of your payroll processes.

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According to a survey carried out by the Aberdeen group organisations that had an integrated time and attendance system with payroll, benefited from a 30% lower rate of payroll processing errors. Theses organisation also saw a 32% lower error rate in the tracking of actual employee time worked, and also avoided the 6% year over year increase in manual workforce transactions experienced by organisations that didn’t have an integrated system in place.

Having an integrated payroll system can also save your company time as it eliminates time-consuming processes such as the manual calculating of time-sheets, meaning your human resource department are free to work on more strategic duties such as increasing workforce productivity.

Elf productivity’s Ceequel software suite acts as one fully integrated system allowing you to easily manage your time and attendance data as well as your payroll operations from one platform. Data is transferred between the two modules in real time meaning information is always kept up to date.

For more information on how you can integrate your payroll system with Ceequel time and attendance, contact us today!

Time and Attendance with rostering

For any sized organisation knowing which of your employees is working what shift can be a real headache. A manual system is not only slow but can also be complicated and inaccurate. Implementing a computerised time and attendance system can not only speed up your scheduling process but also take the weight off your shoulders. Ceequel time and attendance has been designed with companies in mind, it’s easy to use and allows you to monitor your entire workforces shifts and patterns from one platform.

Rostering

Keeping track of your employee’s shift patterns can be a difficult task for any organisation.  With manual processes, it’s almost impossible as a business to know exactly who’s working what shift on any given day.    Implementing Ceequel Time and Attendance into your business provides you with an easy to use solution that allows you to monitor your entire workforces working schedules and shifts.  The system also allows you to set up planned or ad-hoc employee rostering/rotations.

Using rosters within your organisation makes sure that your facility always remains productive.  Rosters should always be set up with workforce activity in mind. Choosing the right employees with the relevant skills for each roster is essential to keeping your organisation running smoothly.  It is important to always ensure that you have enough staff rostered to work at any one time in case of employee holidays, absences or rest days.  When assigning rosters to your staff it is important to check that all contracts are adhered to and the working time directive is followed.

Reports can be set up within the Ceequel system and automatically produced on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  These reports show a detailed view of what shifts an employee has been working and any absences that may have occurred.  This makes it easier for employers to spot absences that may be down to fatigue, through employees working long or difficult rosters/rotations.  The system then allows you to easily switch employees to alternative working patterns, in order to create a more productive and focused workforce.  The Ceequel system also allows mangers to view the most requested shifts, thus identifying the popular and unpopular shifts.  This information can then be used to amend current rosters in order to make sure that the correct number of people will always be working at their optimum level.

For more information on how rostering can work for your organisation contact us!

 

Ceequel Access Control

Providing your staff with a secure working environment is paramount in this day and age. Many companies have already opted to implement systems that can define which employees has access to what areas of their building whilst also allowing them to be able to monitor and control any visitor access.

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Mobile Workforce Management can no longer be ignored!

Adoption of mobile tools for workforce management has grown rapidly over the last few years. Employers n employees now want to be able to view and amend their day to day schedules on the go.

workforce management

Short term absence and the impact it can have on a business

Short term and long term absences are often a real problem for organisations as they leave them short staffed and over worked. In the case of a long term absence employers often find themselves having to contract in agency staff in order to cope with the growing workload. Short term absence however is harder to deal with as contracting staff in for the odd day or two can be costly.

long or short term

Short term absences are very disruptive to an organisation, with many managers often having to scramble around looking for cover, which on occasion is not readily available.  This can leave organisations short staffed and lacking expertise.  Long term absences however have the opposite effect on businesses as they can be easier to manage.  The tasks that would normally be completed by an absent employee will often be split up and passed onto other members of the team, or agency staff could be recruited to cover the absence period.

Most long term absences are covered under the Equality act 2010, so employers need to make sure they are complying with all legislations.  Keeping a note of all employee absence records throughout their illness is crucial and this information needs to be kept secure at all times.

Elf Productivity’s Ceequel® software suite provides your Human Resource department with a secure way of easily recording every employee absence.   Just by virtue of the fact that an employee has not clocked using Ceequel® Time and Attendance, the system will know the start day, end day, number of working days absent and the category of absence.  In Ceequel® Human Resource Management software, notes can be made within the system and access can be given to managers of the sick employees.   In addition, attachments such as fit notes or return to work documents can be scanned in and attached to an individual’s records, thus providing your Human Resource department with a complete overview of every employee’s medical history.   Short term absences can also be monitored within the system allowing you to keep track of everyone within your workforce.

Individual absence reports can be set up to run on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis, allowing managers to spot any absence patterns creeping in at the earliest stage.

Many organisations are now also monitoring reports such as the Bradford factor, which is designed to penalise employees who have lots of absence occasions, as opposed to those with a genuine long term ailment.   Using Ceequel ® Time and Attendance, this report can be calculated automatically over a rolling 12 month period and emailed to the appropriate line manager.

Having an easy to use system in place that allows you to not only track employee sickness but also record key information and can save your business time and money, for more information contact us today!

Could you be more productive?

Managing your time on a day to day basis is often a daunting tasks to most people. Understanding just how much time you need to set aside for each task is often hard when you have no way of measuring how long each task takes. Implementing the below seven tips can help you to effectively manage your time and could even provide you with extra time to finish off tasks that may take longer than expected.

Time Management

Effectively managing your time is a daunting task for any employee. Although we would all like to believe we do it well the realisation is you probably spend over 50% of your time completing mundane tasks and unproductive processes.  Spending your time more effectively on more important tasks is likely to stop you from missing deadlines and having to complete tasks outside of work.

7 Tips to Help You Maximise Your Time

Using the 7 tips below will help you maximise your time making it easier for you to complete tasks on time and to the best of your ability.

1. Tracking

Keeping track of how long it takes you to complete each individual task is the easiest way to grasp a hold on which tasks require more time.  Knowing which projects take the most time allows you to effectively manage your weeks as you can allocate the right number of hours needed to complete each project and schedule tasks that take less time in around them.

2. Breaking up projects.

Breaking up bigger projects into smaller tasks allows you to manage your time more effectively. Knowing how long each part of a project takes makes it easier for you to recognise where you fall behind. This information allows you to allocate your time better the next time around, meaning you will hit your deadlines every time.

3. Kill unnecessary meetings

Meetings take up time and time is precious when it comes to the completion of everyday tasks. Attending a meeting that could have possibly been avoided on a day when you have an important project due is unnecessary and time consuming.

When planning a meeting you need to determine if one is really needed or can what you are going to be discussing be done over the phone or via email. You also need to decide if you really need so many of your staff or colleague to attend, if the meeting needs to go ahead and could it be completed by yourself and do you really need to take a colleague with you.

Scheduling short 10 to 15 minute meeting instead of the automated half an hour provided by your calendar is the most effective way to get meeting’s done but without the needing to waste any unnecessary time.  Although the idea of using a timer in a meeting can often be seen as disrespectful it is the easiest way to make sure you stay on top of your day to day schedule. Meeting’s that drag on longer than expected often leave you scrambling to finish tasks before the end of the day with many having to be pushed to the following morning.

4. Multitasking is a waste of time

Completing multiple tasks at once seems like the quickest way to get things done however it’s actually the least productive thing you could do.  A human has an average attention span of about 8 seconds meaning it tasks around 26 minutes to properly refocus on each task you’re completing meaning the work your producing in this time is actually not to the best of your ability.

Rather than completing all your tasks at once you should focus on one task at a time and reward yourself with breaks inbetween new projects.

5. Prioritise

There’s nothing worse than coming into work to see a list of past tasks on your desk that need amending. The easiest way to deal with this is to complete the most important task first. Schedule a block of time for this project and try to complete it within the allocated time. Make sure to take a note if the project takes longer than expected as this information will help you effectively manage your time next time you have to complete a similar project.

6. Distractions

Employees are their own worst enemy when it comes to avoiding distractions. We’ve all gotten caught up in checking and responding to our emails before so much so that a considerable period of time has gone by and we’ve still to make a start on that important project.  Realistically most of the emails you receive can wait, after all you don’t get paid for checking your emails your value is based on how productive you are at completing the essential tasks you are given. Giving yourself a selected period of time each day in order to check and respond to your emails is the easiest way to achieve the most from your day.

7. The 45/15 rule

We’re not designed to work on tasks for endless hours and after about 45 minutes we actually begin to lose focus. Allowing yourself to spend 45 solid minutes working on each individual task followed by a 15 minute break to focus on a distraction of your choice is the best way to achieve the highest levels of productivity.  Making sure you only take a bathroom break or check on any desktop or phone notifications whilst in your designated non-working time stops you from wasting productive minutes.

While employees can take note of the above seven tips to improve their productivity, without a time and attendance solution linked to employee tracking it is impossible to see which of your workforce are the most productive.

For more information on how you can track your employee’s productivity contact us today!

Do you know the most productive day of the week?

Every wondered what the most productive day of a business week is?. well now we know, a recent study done by Accountemps has shown that Tuesdays are the most productive day off the week, with 33% of HR managers saying they seen a rise in there staffs productivity. Wednesday was the next productive day with 23% followed by Monday on a surprisingly high 14% as many employees are often still tired from there busy weekends.

productivity

When it comes to completing a big project or making a start on the little tasks you’ve been putting off, it has been analysed by Accountemps on 300 HR Managers, that Tuesday’s are apparently the most productive day of the week.  After all no one likes Mondays.   While Fridays signal the start of the weekend with many employees choosing to finish early meaning little work is actually being completed.

The survey showed that 33% percent of Human Resource managers noticed a rise in productivity levels on a Tuesday compared to Thursdays and Fridays which both scored below 10%. Wednesday was the next most productive day with 23% and Monday surprisingly scored higher than the last two days of the week with 14%.

Giving your employees projects that require the most focus on a Tuesdays is therefore a suggestion that many employers have probably never even considered.

The goal of course should be to attempt to replicate the improvements found on a Tuesday.  To assist in making this happen, we have four tips:

–          Prioritise

Each day make a list of your key tasks and ensure you focus on these and try not to get side tracked

–          Limit distractions

When working on key projects or tasks, turn off likely distractions such as mobile phones.  Sign out of social media sites and even close Outlook.

–          Quality is paramount

While many employees will try to rush certain tasks, it is often the case where time has not been allocated accordingly that the quality diminishes and results in the task either having to be repeated or improved.

–          Consider technology

Utilising Elf Productivity’s Employee Tracking software, employees can be set standards to complete tasks and these can be compared to actual times.  Quality can be improved as management can assess the works completed and allocate a score for quality or monitor any waste.   As this module links directly to Time and Attendance a reconciliation of productive and non-productive time can be produced at the touch of a button.

For more information about Elf’s employee tracking software contact us today!

Do you know the most common day of the year for employee absence?

February is a depressing month for most people as normality sets back in after the busy Christmas period and the weather gets more horrific by the day. Its no surprise that according to a recent poll done for day break the first Monday of February has been named ‘national sickie day’ as employers are expected to receive a higher number of sick calls today than any other day of the year. The study showed that around a third of adults took the day off and over half of the people surveyed said they didn’t feel guilty for doing so.

Absence

As the Christmas blues began to creep in and the weather become all that colder, more and more people decide to take time off work.

The first Monday of February has officially been named ‘national sickie day’ with expected sick claims coming from 500,000 employees.  A recent survey carried out by OnePoll for Daybreak, showed that a third of working adults took the day off and 53 percent of them said they didn’t feel guilty for “pulling a sickie”.  The poll also showed that over half of the people surveyed put on a ‘fake’ sick voice and 46% of them said their reason for “pulling a sickie” was because they were tired.

The North West and London were top in the list of places that recorded the highest number of sick days, with Wales and the west Midlands experiencing the lowest number of days.  The poll also found that the most popular excuses people used when calling in sick, was that they had a cold, flu or food poisoning.  Employee absences on this day were also thought to cost industries up to £50 million.

The vast majority of businesses cannot afford to be dealing with unnecessary costs associated with employee absences.

Having a fully functioning Time and Attendance system in place can help your business monitor every absence your employees take.  Elf Productivity’s Ceequel software suite provides you with a system to track your employee’s absences; not only on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis but also by a number of pre-defined terms.  Absence codes can be customised within the software and details about every absence can also be stored.  Reports can be generated at the touch of a button – providing mangers with the ability to spot when an employee has taken excessive time off where absence patterns are beginning to manifest.